All posts by Andy Henderson

How to improve your phone service and save money

Hayling Island u3a

I explain how you can save money and get a better service by switching to a different telephone provider...

As I hope you're aware, BT's Open Reach subsidiary has decided to switch off dedicated phone lines, known as the Public Switched Telephone Network. You should have received instructions for reinstating your telephone(s) because your socket in the wall no longer works.

Back in July 2021 when I wrote an article explaining a change was coming I said:

There's no indication of how new voice services will be charged. Given the way internet phones work, you'll be able to choose from a huge range of different providers offering their own blend of services - and costs.

That's not quite how it's worked out. Instead your internet provider has switched you over to its Digital Voice service 'for free'. I don't think that's good enough. BT is saving a lot of money by switching off PSTN, but is not passing those savings on to us.

Worse, if you're a BT customer, you're not being given the option to move to a different Digital Voice provider. Instead, you are committed to your current contract for the rest of your term! I'm going to guess that's true for most (all) broadband providers. You might want to challenge that - it seems unfair to me.

My BT contract expired last month. Margaret and I want to keep our home telephone number (if you don't need a home phone number, make sure you remove that service when your contract expires or you'll be paying for something you don't use). I was offered a Digital Voice service by my new broadband provider (which charged me a lot less for a faster connection) but Phonely has a cheaper and better offering. I'm not saying they're the best, there are other competing providers, but I was attracted by:

  • Retention of our existing phone number. If you cancel your existing service, you have at least a month during which you can take your number to a new provider. Otherwise, your new provider should be able to take over your existing number with at most one day of down time. There was no need to talk to BT, I had to fill in a form, send it to Phonely, and it did the rest.
  • Lower, and simpler charges. Phonely currently charges £9.97 a month for its basic service which includes:
    • 800 minutes a month to UK landlines and mobiles
    • No limit on call duration
    • International calling
    • Voicemail
  • The big one for me: put the Phonely app on your mobile and, if you are connected to the internet, you will get any incoming call on your mobile simulateously with the phone ringing at home. The first to pick up takes the call. That means, if there's no-one home, you can still pick up calls to your home number!

Phonely also offers some additional services designed to protect people from scams, which I've not seen anywhere else.

To get Phonely to work you need to plug your phone into an adapter, connect the adapter's power supply, and plug the adapter into your router. The Phonely adapter costs £50 (or nothing if you pay annually) and arrives set up ready to be plugged in. On the other hand, you can put your phone anywhere you have an internet socket - it doesn't have to connect directly to your router.

As required by OFCOM, BT refunded a portion of the charge it had made in advance.

If you'd like some help or advice switching to a cheaper, better phone service, let me know.

Since writing the original article, I've found a couple more Digital Voice providers for the home:

Note you'll see references to Voice Over IP (VOIP) - that's the same thing as Digital Voice.

Walking routes

Hayling Island u3a, Walking

The following pages contain maps of some of the walks done by the Walking group since September 2015. You'll see a button to show the route towards the bottom of each linked page. You will also see a button to download a 'GPX' and/or 'KMZ' file that you can use with:

  • a GPS device
  • a smart phone with a suitable app (such as Osmand)
  • a PC with suitable software (such as Google Earth)
  • a web site that can work with route files (such as Mapometer or GPS Visualizer)

You can use the maps to plan another walk for the Walking group, or to walk the route yourself.

Available maps:

Save 4% on your Tesco bill - other outlets are available

Hayling Island u3a

The u3a Trust has created a discount scheme called u3a Friends Extra for u3a members that have subscribed to its u3a Friends newsletter.

The scheme is free and gives you money off a range of different outlets. To try it out, I explored getting the promised 4% from Tesco. By using it for all our Tesco shopping, I'll be able to make a profit on my HIU3A subscription!

To get the discount:

  • Sign up to the u3a Friends newsletter. You just need to provide your email address and first name. You will get regular monthly 'Friends' emails letting you know something about what is happening in the UK-wide u3a. You will also get an email containing a link to the Friends Extra web site...
  • Click the Friends Extra link - for me that meant clicking the 'u3a Friends Extra' banner in the email. The link is specific to your email address; I can't provide a direct link here, sorry.
  • Make a note of the Friends Extra link so you can get back to it. It's a long one with several codes so the easiest way to do that is to either:
    • Keep the email somewhere you can get back to it; or
    • Copy the link to Notepad, Evernote, or similar; or
    • Store it in a password manager such as Lastpass.
  • Register with the Friends Extra web site. You will need to provide a password (that you'll also need to remember) and provide:
    • Your email preferences
    • Some limited personal information (not all of which is mandatory - I provided title, name and year of birth)
    • Your address - the site says it must match your credit card address but I omitted it and there was no problem
  • Select the outlet that you want a discount for - for me, that was Tesco - click the AZ button in the toolbar to see a full list of outlets. What happens next might vary by outlet but the broad principle is that you purchase a gift card for a value you specify. I ordered a £200 gift card and, because of the 4% discount, I paid just £192 for it. The outlet sends you a gift card - I chose the option to get a digital one, that included a link to add the card to my Google wallet (there was a similar option for Apple phones).
  • When shopping, present your gift card when making your payment. Either let the cashier scan it, or use the 'Gift card' option on the self-service payment screen. Tesco tracks how much of the gift card you've used so you don't have to use it all at once. You also get your Tesco clubcard points and discounts. That might not be the case for all outlets, so check the terms carefully.
  • Because the gift card I bought was issued by Tesco I'm not reliant on the u3a scheme to redeem the card - just as long as Tesco doesn't go bust!

At the time of writing there are loads of outlets offering discounts. Here's some of the more widely-known ones (actual discounts will vary over time):

  • Argos 5%
  • Caffè Nero 10.5%
  • Costa 10%
  • Currys 5.5%
  • Greggs 9%
  • Halfords 7%
  • Hobbycraft 9%
  • IOW ferry 15% for cars 20% for foot/bike travellers
  • John Lewis 6%
  • M&S 6%
  • Morrisons 3%
  • National Trust 10%
  • Sainsbury's 4%

Places to meet

Hayling Island u3a

We have attempted to identify places on the Island where groups can meet. Please let the web site editor know of errors and omissions.

Click/tap any of these headings for more information...

Hayling Island Community Centre

Station Road
PO11 0HB

Click/tap here to see the location and a HIU3A events list. Use the list to identify which groups meet their and contact their group leaders for more information.

There's a lot of information about the centre, including booking information, in the Hayling Island Community Centre Association web site.

To get to the Community Centre by car, you go through the Station Road car park and the Centre has its own car park. Both can get busy on occasions (not least when we hold our monthly meetings).

Access is wheelchair-friendly.

Age Concern Hall

Sunnyside Hall
14 Webb Lane
PO11 9JE

Click/tap here to see the location and a HIU3A events list. Use the list to identify which groups meet there and contact their group leaders for more information.

Facilities are good for a relatively small group. 'Painting and drawing 3' finds eight is a comfortable number.

It has a good kitchen but parking is restricted to a maximum of around five cars.

Current cost (early 2024) of £8 per hour is very reasonable.

Click/tap here to login to redisplay this page with contact details. Click/tap here to see the hall's Facebook page.

Barley Mow

Manor Road
PO11 0EZ

Click/tap here to see the location and a HIU3A events list. Use the list to identify which groups meet there and contact their group leaders for more information.

The Barley Mow's web site is here. It is happy to accommodate meetings provided attendees partake of some refreshment. You should contact the Barley Mow to explain what you're planning before meeting there.

Hayling Golf Club

Links Lane
PO11 0BX

Click/tap here to see the location and a HIU3A events list. Use the list to identify which groups meet there and contact their group leaders for more information.

Find out about the Golf Club's facilities and room hire arrangements here.

Langbrook Farm

2A Langstone Road
Havant
PO9 1SA

The farm's web site is here.

It's early days, but the Ukulele group has had a warm reception. It was offered the central area which is a good size and partially enclosed, but can be easily overheard.

There's no requirment to use the Langbrook's services, but there's obviously an expectation.

Newtown House Hotel

The hotel's web site is here.

At the time of writing (October '24) we're still exploring this venue. The Dominoes group will use two tables in the bar area, but has been offered the Garden room if there are sufficient numbers.

There is no cost but an expectation for members to buy a drink (or two).

There is normally plenty of parking in the hotel car park.

Booking is via Sarah on 07786 918473. She is actively seeking groups to play or practice there. There is also a contact form here.

Radford Hall

West Town Park
PO11 0JD

Click/tap here to see the location and a HIU3A events list. Use the list to identify which groups meet there and contact their group leaders for more information.

Royal British Legion

Legion Road
PO11 9ES

Click/tap here to see the location and a HIU3A events list. Use the list to identify which groups meet there and contact their group leaders for more information.

The Hayling branch's web site is here.

The RBL has plenty of parking and good facilities for drinks and snacks.

Heating can be a problem on cold days.

The earliest start time is 11am.

St Patrick's Church Hall

Manor Road
PO11 0QU

Click/tap here to see the location and a HIU3A events list. Use the list to identify which groups meet there and contact their group leaders for more information.

The St Patrick's web page is here and includes a contact for hall booking.

There is a car park in front of the church.

Seacourt

20 Victoria Avenue
PO11 9AJ

Click/tap here to see the location and a HIU3A events list. Use the list to identify which groups meet there and contact their group leaders for more information.

Seacourt provides a range of racket-based courts and a Petanque Terrain. It's web site is here.

It has a large car park in front of the building.

South Hayling URC halls

Hollow Lane
PO11 9EY

The URC's web site here provides information about facilities and booking.

The West Town Inn

52 Station Road
PO11 0EL

David Giffard (French conversation deux) writes:

They have a book at the bar where they make the booking. No money to book but we buy drinks. There is a room behind the bar with a table and chairs for 8. If someone books it for an event, then it won't be available. As the room has no windows, its less attractive for drinkers and eaters, but OK for talkers.

The West Town's web site is here.

Wimborne Care Home

Selsmore Road
PO11 9JZ

We've been offered space for meetings and the opportunity to use the care home's catering for refreshments.

Click/tap here for it's web site which includes contact information.

A story from the creative writing group

Creative writing

The lost property office

For a short time while I was growing up my Dad was in charge of the Lost Property Office at Victoria Station. This meant that he was occasionally part of the shift system manning the front desk. He would bring home amusing tales of what people had left on trains: there was a leg of lamb in a shopping bag more than once, an unplucked fowl tied by the legs with a label attached with someone's name written on it was occasionally abandoned and once a hare (fur still on) similarly labelled. There were umbrellas galore of course. I was more interested in a magician’s cloak. It was black on one side, my Dad described it in detail. He said that would render its wearer almost invisible, then went on to say that the other side was a luminous blue with shiny stars.

Every three months items that had not been reclaimed by their rightful owners were sent to public auction (edible leavings were put in a fridge and kept for a week before being disposed of). Items that received no bids at auction were first of all put in a sale where railway employees and their families had the option of buying the things that the travelling public had abandoned. The proceeds from the sale were given to charity. Items left over from the sale were then sent to charity shops to be sold. I wanted the magic cloak my father had described so very much that I kept my fingers crossed as much as I could over the days preceding the next sale, subscribing to a theory I invented that the magic of crossed fingers would reach the shadowy world of the magician’s cloak! Eager anticipation for my mother’s return from the sale had me hopping from one foot to the other as she opened the front door. When she told me that the cloak had not been in the sale after all I was devastated. Her sole purchase, to my disgust, was a brand new dustpan and brush!

My disappointment had not gone unnoticed by my kind mother: that Christmas the first present I opened was a majestic magician’s cloak which she had made. It had all the features described by my father. It reached the ground of my 10 year old self but I continued to wear it over black trousers right through my teenage years when I practised my magic acts for family and friends. I read about magic tricks enthusiastically and joined the Junior Magician’s Circle, eventually graduating to full membership of the adult Magician’s Circle. Now, all these years later, I still practise the art and am much in demand. I followed my father into a career on the railways and as I work shifts I am able to fit my one-man shows into children’s party times. I am often asked to perform at grown-up parties too. Occasionally I am invited to attend séances because of a mistaken idea that I have connections ‘on the other side’ but those invitations I always decline. I stick strictly to the rules of the Magic Circle. While I am not yet in the Darren Brown class, I am proud of my expertise which all began because a magician left his cloak on a train: Magical!

Gill Heather

Croquet group report

Croquet

The weather earlier in the Spring stopped play on several occasions, so we spent these mornings in the conservatory playing Rummikub and Mexican Train.

We are now pleased to see this sunny weather and are getting into our summer season. A few of the group are definitely improving, but some of us are simply inconsistent. However, we all enjoy the game, and we are a very close group.

We combined our Annual Trophy Contest this year with the Coronation celebrations. Everyone contributed to a finger buffet after the game, and then the trophies were presented to the winner by last year’s winner. Later in the year, for the first time in our six-year history, we will be playing for a Doubles Championship Trophy.

Jenny Devaney with her winner's trophy

Phil and Sue Blagdon

Science & technology group report

Science and technology

This group is open to all who wish to hear about anything science-related and for that there is a nominal charge of £2 on the door to help towards the hall hire and refreshments.

Venue: St Patrick’s Church Hall, meeting 4th Wednesday of the month.

There are 43 Members of this group and there is 50% average attendance.

This year we have had a presentations about:

  • Superconductors
  • Is this the Future of Farming? From the Laboratory and not the field!
  • A supercomputer in your Pocket: Mobile Phone
  • A Mathematical Story: Why Sunday walks around the city in 1736 became a new set of Mathematics

Coming up in the next session we have topics such as:

  • Wasps - love them or hate them, we need them.
  • he Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) space mission - Hitting an Asteroid Head On.
  • Radar: From its beginnings to current applications.
  • Electromagnetic radiation do we need to worry?

There is always an urgent requirement to find speakers to come and give us a presentation. Reaching out to the local u3a’s has given us another source of speakers, but they are also very limited. So if anyone has any contacts or topics they can present, then please contact me.

Bob Hornby

Blockbusters group report

Blockbusters

One of our favourite books was the story of Ernest Shackleton and his exploration of the Antarctic, a remarkable story of endurance which if I gave details, they would spoil the experience for those who do not know the history. We also studied Living Dangerously by Ranulph Fiennes which is another favourite of mine.

The biography of John le Carré was to be endured not enjoyed by most of us!! All in all we have read a very varied selection and enjoyed most of the books.

What is a surprise is how varied opinions are about some books, which can be loathed or loved by someone in the group, such as H is for Hawk by Jane MacDonald. We all very much enjoy our monthly meetings.

Adrienne Pearson

Reading group 2 report

Reading 2

The past year has seen our group add a new dimension to our reading experience. One of our members has an extensive collection of DVDs and has generously invited us to her home on a monthly basis to view films based on books. Among others, we have viewed “Memoirs of a Geisha” (Arthur Golden), “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” (John Fowles), “The Notebook” (Nicholas Sparks) and “A Room With a View” (E M Forster), all modern classics.

For this year we chose books from the Queen’s Jubilee list – only a few reading group sets from this are stocked by the library – including Iris Murdoch’s “The Bell”: we considered her prose style cumbersome, and did not warm to the characters.

Other reading has included Kate Adie’s hilarious account of her early days in journalism and as a BBC foreign correspondent “The Kindness of Strangers”, and two autobiographies: Captain Tom Moore’s “Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day” and Tim Peake’s “Limitless”. Both men had a very positive outlook on life, loved the outdoors and challenges, and were keen to learn and advance in their careers. Very different was Maggie O’Farrell’s account of 17 near death experiences in “I Am, I Am, I Am”, some of which were quite shocking and terrifying.

Fiction has covered a wide range of subjects, from the rollicking 18th century-set tale “The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock” by Imogen Hermes Gowar (involving a sea captain, his niece, a courtesan, historically accurate depictions of high class bawdy houses, their madams and frequenters – and of course the mermaid - or was it?) to two classic novels: “The Haunted Hotel” by Wilkie Collins, which we agreed was not one of his best, and “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” by Anne Brontë. The latter has been belatedly recognised as an important early feminist work, covering addiction and domestic abuse, and Anne’s literary reputation has soared. Anne’s sister Charlotte suppressed the manuscript after Anne’s early death, judging these subjects unfit for a novel written by a young lady! We also read one of the year’s best-selling crime stories “The Appeal” by Janice Hallett. This proved a “marmite” book with some loving it and others hating it, mainly because of the format: the book is written entirely in emails and WhatsApp messages. This might, of course, be considered the modern equivalent of the format of Anne Brontë’s novel, which was written as a series of letters to a friend.

Jen Cayley

Philosophy group report

Philosophy 1

We have been meeting monthly for nearly fifteen years. In the beginning, we met at Mike Sylvester’s house and in that venue, the group became good friends. When Covid arrived, meetings were held on Zoom, later on when everyone was vaccinated, they were changed to the spacious surroundings of the Royal British Legion near the Hayling Co-Op.

In January 2023, Mike passed the group leadership on to me. I have a tough act to follow, and I am grateful for the guidance he is giving me. We all owe a big debt of gratitude to Mike for his unstinting work for fifteen years.

After my initial stumbles, we now have a way of working where individual members lead a discussion on a subject chosen by the group. Recent meetings have been lively and interesting.

Chris Skerry

Card making & paper craft report

Card making & paper craft 1, Card making & paper craft 2, Card making & paper craft 3, Card making & paper craft 4, Card making & paper craft 5

Each card making group meets monthly and makes a card. Throughout the months January to August we make a card that can be adapted for Birthday, Thank You, Happy Anniversary etc, but from September to December we concentrate on making 4 different Christmas cards. (Again, we make one each month) The photo shows the cards that the groups will make this year, all quite different from each other but there are lots of different card making techniques to master. Alongside making the card we have lots of giggles as well as having refreshments.

If this is something you think you might like to try, I do have some spaces. Tuesday group 3 has 2 spaces, Tuesday group 4 has one space and Tuesday group 5 has two spaces.

All materials are provided and the cost is £2.50 per session